✕
Info
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology: Bromus = "food" [Greek] the ancient name for oats (Avena)
Species etymology: sterilis = "sterile" [Latin] refering to the florets falling quickly after maturing
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1921
Map
Inflorescence
image credit: Christian_BergHabit
image credit: Pavel_KaclCollar
image credit: Christian_BergDescription
Plants annual. Culms 35-100 cm, erect or geniculate near the base, glabrous. Sheaths densely pubescent; auricles absent; ligules 2-2.5 mm, glabrous, acute, lacerate; blades 4-20 cm long, 1-6 mm wide, pubescent on both surfaces. Panicles 10-20 cm long, 5-12 cm wide, open; branches 2-10 cm, spreading, ascending or drooping, rarely with more than 3 spikelets. Spikelets 20-35 mm, usually shorter than the panicle branches, sides parallel or diverging distally, moderately laterally compressed, with 5-9 florets. Glumes smooth or scabrous, margins hyaline; lower glumes 6-14 mm, 1(3)-veined; upper glumes 10-20 mm, 3(5)-veined; lemmas 14-20 mm, narrowly lanceolate, pubescent or puberulent, 7(9)-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins hyaline, apices acuminate, bifid, teeth 1-3 mm; awns 15-30 mm, straight, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices; anthers 1-1.4 mm. 2n = 14,28.
(Description source: Barkworth, M.E., Capels, K.M. & Long, S. (eds.) 1993. Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Volume 24. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, Part 1. Oxford University Press, New York. 911 pp. http://floranorthamerica.org/Bromus_sterilis )